Trade mission could strengthen Pittsburgh, Mexican city relations
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Dan Reynolds
Plans are afoot to pair Pittsburgh with Aguascalientes as a Mexican sister city, and a trade mission to the city next month could help strengthen relations.
According to a report by accounting firm KMPG, Aguascalientes is the most business-friendly state in Mexico. The state is already home to a $2.5 billion Nissan-Renault factory and hosts numerous manufacturers, including electronics makers Texas Instruments and Flextronics.
Brent Rondon, global affairs manager in the Duquesne University Chrysler Corp. Small Business Development Center, said he and other planners are hoping to have an agreement signed within the year. Rondon has called a meeting for Feb. 6 at Duquesne University to gauge interest in forming an exploratory committee to oversee preparations to create the sister cities pact.
A national sister city program was developed in the Eisenhower administration to foster peace in the post-World War Two era. In addition to economic development opportunities, sister city relationships feature broader-based cultural interactions like educational exchanges, programs in the arts and athletic exhibitions.
Rondon's effort is being aided in part by a three-year grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Although any resolution will have to be passed by Pittsburgh City Council, Rondon said a sister city committee first has to demonstrate that there is wide-spread support for a long-term relationship.
"This has to be a Pittsburgh community-based project," Rondon said.
Rondon is being assisted by the nonprofit Greater Pittsburgh Sister Cities Association, which oversees sister city relationships with 15 international cities.
But many of those relationships aren't all that active, according to Tom Fallon,who is president of the GPSCA. He said at best, Pittsburgh has five or six sister city relationships that are viable. A key to making a long-term relationship with Aguascalientes work is going to be committed community members that stay in Pittsburgh, and businesses that create long-term trading partners there.
Linda Jansen, a technical director with Coraopolis-based Ronco International Inc., a manufacturer of corrosion inhibitors, said her company is one of many from the Pittsburgh area going on a state-sponsored trade mission to Aguascalientes in March. Jansen said her company is going there to explore market possibilities in the electronics, manufacturing and packaging industries.
Environmental engineering companies might want to take particular interest, since officials in Aguascalientes say help with water quality and other environmental issues is a key concern.
Other sister cities such as Wuhan, China, have afforded expansion options for Pittsburgh companies such as Moon-Township-based siding manufacturer CENTRIA Inc. and East Liberty-based Management Science Associates Inc.
Fallon said local companies can look to existing state-side trade with Mexico for inspiration for a twinning arrangement with a Mexican city.
"Mexico is Pennsylvania's second-biggest trading partner and is our second export destination after Canada," Fallon said.
A local businesswoman and native of Mexico City said she plans to make a long-term commitment to the project.
Cathy Bazan-Arias, a senior staff engineer with Homestead-based GAI Consultants Inc., said a relationship with a thriving Mexican business center like Aguascalientes would do more to erase the fading image of Pittsburgh as a provincial, backwater town.
"Having strong ties with neighbors is always a good thing," Bazan-Arias said.
Rondon said he has already made contacts with Duquesne University's School of Environmental Science and the state's Department of Environmental Protection for their assistance in assessing Aguascalientes' environmental issues.
dreynolds@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3827
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